


9 Inaugural Balls (And 1 More)

by bimadabomi



Category: The West Wing
Genre: F/M, Post-Canon, Santos Administration
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:47:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27322195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bimadabomi/pseuds/bimadabomi
Summary: Josh and Donna attend the nine inaugural balls (and then one more).
Relationships: Josh Lyman/Donna Moss
Comments: 10
Kudos: 100





	9 Inaugural Balls (And 1 More)

It’s the first inaugural ball of the night, and the excitement in the air is palpable. Though they’d been to inaugural balls before for President Bartlet, this one feels entirely different, especially for Josh. From flying to Houston on a whim and a prayer to get _his guy_ to run for the office, to his year on the campaign trail working harder than ever to get _his guy_ elected, to his new position as Chief of Staff, this inauguration feels so much more personal.

He notices Donna across the room, mingling with Annabeth and the First Lady. She’s clearly in work mode. He briefly remembers the last inaugural ball for President Bartlet, when he went to get her from her apartment by throwing snowballs at her window, the guys in tow. It was amazing how times had changed- their subtle flirtation that they tried to keep hidden under the guise of friendship – so completely obvious looking at where they are now. She had still been his assistant back then, and now she was a Chief of Staff in her own right. Yet, some things were also the same… he was still floored by how amazing she looked all dressed up, and she still gave him that soft, content smile when he told her so. 

In this environment, the ballroom, the lighting, she shines elegance. He felt the same way last time. Only this time, he was allowed to think it, to voice it, to _feel_ it. Now, here, at this ball, her elegance radiates and she looks so at ease, confident, _happy_.

He remembers going to get her at her apartment, last time, when he realized that she was covering up for Jack by claiming she was the one who gave the quote to the press. “What about your career?” he’d told her – and look at her now.

She happens to turn her head and does a double take as she catches his eyes from across the room. She gives him a grin and a little wink before turning back to Annabeth.

He’s not sure how he got so lucky, how they managed to find themselves here.

(Though he does know he owes some thanks to Sam and his forced vacation.)

*

The second inaugural ball goes by in a flash, just as much a blur as the first. They’re already behind schedule, so they speed through this one. The President and the First Lady wave to the excited crowd, share a dance, and then everyone is on their way to the third ball, hoping to make up the lost time. Josh doesn’t even see Donna the entire time they’re in the ballroom. He hasn’t seen much of her tonight, yet, other than his glimpse of her at the first ball from across the room. He promises himself he’s going to find the time to dance with her tonight. 

*

The third inaugural ball is where the party’s _happening_. Rumor has it the guests at the first two balls had a hard time getting their hands on a drink. The third ball has champagne glasses on constant rotation and guests are happily sipping away. 

“Hey there, Stranger.” Josh hears her voice behind him and can’t help but crack a smile. He grabs two glasses of champagne from the tray that passes by and hands one to her. “This is such a whirlwind,” she says with a sigh as she sips her drink, closing her eyes happily as she lets the champagne wash over her. “The first two balls went by in a blur. The first lady almost had a wardrobe malfunction before the dance at the last one,” she says with a grimace, thinking of what could have been. 

“I take it her Chief of Staff saved the day?” Josh grins, happy to get a moment with her.

“You know it,” Donna grins back, taking another sip of her drink. “Annabeth is happy for the averted publicity crisis.” Josh feels momentarily jealous of the first lady, to have Donna watching out for her. Donna’s good at that. He’d tried to convince Margaret to stay on as his assistant, but she insisted it was time to move on from the long hours, what with the baby and all. She claimed she hadn’t even intended to stay for CJ at first, and she was good and ready to move on now. He wasn’t sure how he could find anyone half as good as Donna, and not hold that against them.

“Did you know that tickets to the first inaugural ball were just $4?” she suddenly asks him, sipping her champagne and eyes roaming over the crowd, taking in the environment and the experience.

No. There would never be another like her.

*

It’s the fourth inaugural ball where he finally has a moment to breathe. He and Donna had swiped more than one glass of champagne at the third ball, and he was feeling a slight, still work appropriate, buzz along with a lot of contentedness. He spots her across the room, shaking hands with someone he doesn’t know. He notices that their conversation seems to be wrapping up, so he zeroes in on her, intent to get to her before someone stops either one of them.

This is what their life will be like, at the very least for the next four years, he figures. Both of them in a whirlwind, doing their jobs to the best of their ability, while meanwhile trying to make time for each other between it all. She smiles when she sees him.

“Do you want to dance?” he asks her, reaching out for her hand. She looks momentarily surprised – he’s not sure if it’s because of the fact he’s been so busy all night she’s surprised he’s managed to make time for a dance, or if it’s simply because _he’s asking her to dance_ , which is not something they’ve ever done before.

“I thought you’d never ask,” she teases, taking his hand and flipping her somehow still perfectly styled hair behind her shoulders. She takes his hand and allows him to lead her to the dance floor. “It only took you four balls to ask,” she adds with a glimmer of playfulness in her eyes.

He smirks at her and gives her hand a quick squeeze. “More like nine years.”

She laughs genuinely and lets him lead her to the dance floor. She notices Sam and Lou networking behind him. She takes a moment to appreciate that he took a minute away from it all to dance with her, true to his promise to try and find some kind of life-work balance.

“You’ve been busy tonight,” he states as they sway to the music. 

“You been keeping an eye on me?” she jokes, pulling back to raise a playful eyebrow at him.

“You think I could keep my eyes off you in that dress?” 

She grins. “You like the dress?” she asks, even though she knows the answer.

“If this wasn’t _the inauguration_ , I would’ve cancelled our plans when I saw you in that dress.”

“Well. We can always take it off later,” she teases. 

“Can we _please_ ,” Josh whines in her ear. “Or, can we take it off now?”

She lightly smacks him. “Behave.”

*

“C’mon,” he begs her with a whisper at the fifth inaugural ball. “Just, let’s… sneak away…”

“Josh,” she admonishes, though she’s secretly pleased by his desire. “We’re at _work._ ”

He shrugs. “I mean, sure, but…”

“But what?”

“This is the first time we’re at work and you’re looking _like that_ , and I’m allowed to act on it.”

She purses her lips. “How many times have you wanted to act on it at work before?” she teases.

“Donna,” he whines, tugging at the strap of her dress playfully. 

“Joshua Lyman, think about what you’re suggesting. We get caught and we’d be fired.”

“It would be so, _so_ worth it.”

“We can’t get fired on our first day,” she teases, pulling away from him and heading back to the ballroom. “See you later, Wild Thing,” she adds with a wink. 

*

During the sixth inaugural ball, Donna pulls Josh away by the hand and leads him to an empty hallway.

“Where are we going?” he asks, distracted. “I’ve got my eye on Senator McClain. I want to ask him about…”

She pulls him around a corner cuts him off with a kiss. He forgets about his work goals for a moment and grins at her. 

“I thought you didn’t want to get fired,” he teases with a raise of his eyebrows.

“Not on the first day,” she said. “It’s after midnight. Technically it’s our second day now.” She kisses him again.

He allows himself to fall into the kiss, but then pulls away. “Donna. We can’t start something we can’t finish,” he groans.

“I’m not suggesting we take it that far. Let’s just enjoy each other for a little bit. I did some location scouting and this hallway and this corner are dead.”

He grins and puts his hands on her hips, pulling her towards him. “Okay. Just for a few minutes,” he says as she giggles and he kisses her again.

_Never_ would he have imagined four years ago.

*

It’s the seventh inaugural ball of the night, and Donna feels content to sway softly in Josh’s arms on the dance floor. She feels happy. Things feel right. They’re about to do this whole stint at the White House thing again. But this time they’re Chiefs of Staff, this time they get to work in the White House and also _be together_.

“I love you,” Josh whispers softly into the side of head as he plants a barely noticeable kiss on her hair. “You look so beautiful,” he adds.

She pulls back and looks up at him with a teasing smile. “Is that why you love me?” she questions, letting her head rest on his shoulder. She feels Josh’s body tense. They’re still new enough into this thing that he worries he’s going to say the wrong thing, sometimes he worries her teasing is real. Sam passes by in the background and nods at her and she waves at him over Josh’s shoulder. She’s thankful for Sam, for knocking some sense into Josh and sending him- _them_ \- on that vacation. 

“What? No. I mean, that could be part of it, sure, but – no. No. No?”

She chuckles into his shoulder and adds, “Relax. It was a joke.”

They’re quiet for a few moments before he finally says, “Election Day.”

“Huh? No. This is _Inauguration_ Day,” she teases. “How much _have_ you had to drink?”

“That’s why I love you,” he clarifies. “I mean, I loved you long before that, but that day was the perfect example ... one twist after another, no matter what that day threw at us, you were there. You always have been. I don’t know I would’ve made it through that day without you.”

She hums softly in approval at his words. She’d been teasing him and hadn’t expected the genuine response. “I love you.” They’re silent for a moment as the jazz band plays. “So exactly _how long_ before that?” she asks curiously, zeroing in on the words he’d said.

He sighs at her catch and easily admits, “I have no idea. A long time before that. It just… happened, somewhere along the way.”

“Mmhmm,” she agrees. “For me, it was when you handed me that campaign staff badge.”

He pulls back to look at her, incredulously. “The _day we met_?”

“Well,” she leans in close to him again and rests her head on his shoulder. “I mean, maybe not _in love_ with you at that point, but there were feelings. Sometime after that it happened.”

He smirks and can’t resist teasing her. “Sometime between the moment we met and this moment now, in the present? Way to pinpoint it, Donna.”

“Shut up. You’re lucky it happened,” she quips. “It wasn’t long after that,” she adds softly.

“That why you picked my office?” he teases. “Because I’m so hard to resist?”

She rolls her eyes. “In _spite_ of your personality, actually.”

“Are you ready for this?” he asks softly, rubbing gentle circles on her back. She’s a little nervous, how all of this will work. Two Chiefs of Staff in a new administration, the first 100 days, and this still mostly brand-new relationship. Transition had been one thing. Now the reality was going to hit them square in the face. They wouldn’t always be able to run away to Hawaii and take a break from everything the White House threw at them.

“We’ll be fine,” he assures her, understanding where her head was. 

His words are comforting and she feels a change in him, since that day at the OEOB when he yelled at Otto. Though she wasn’t there to witness it, she’d seen the build-up. She’d partly worried that after Hawaii things would go back to what they were – him going into the office at five in the morning, using caffeine to get through the day, tunnel vision through the transition and into the inauguration. Somehow, though, he hadn’t gone back to his old patterns and this morning he was still in bed with her at six am on the day of the inauguration instead of rushing around trying to get a head start on the day.

*

The eighth inaugural ball is the slowest of them all, but many still await the glimpse of The President and the First Lady, and the first couple dutifully acts as if it’s their first event and dance of the night, and not their eighth. 

Donna approaches Josh through the crowd and hands him a soda. 

“Soda?” he smirks. “Wow. This ball’s really not up to par with the other seven.”

“I don’t want to wake up with a headache tomorrow.”

“You know what’s weird?” he asks. “When I walk out of here – when _we_ walk out of here tonight, that guy from the detail’s going to follow us home. Mark?”  
“Martin,” Donna corrects him immediately.

“How the hell do you know his name already?”

Donna grins. “It’s part of my charm.”

“It’s _weird_ ,” he adds. “Martin’s going to follow us home, stand outside our apartment all night, and then in the morning the other guy-”

“Antonio.” He shoots her a look and she shrugs and sips her soda. “Antonio will take over. We’re never going to be alone again,” he grumbles. “Just switching off in a pattern for the rest of our lives.”

She shrugs, as if it’s no big deal. “Not for the rest of our lives and it’s for your safety.” She lowers her voice to a whisper and adds, “And I certainly _hope_ we get to be alone _sometimes_ ,” she teases with a glimmer in her eyes.

“I’m only the Chief of Staff,” he shoots back, choosing to ignore her teasing words since they’re in public and technically, at work. “I can guarantee you that given the political apathy in this country, the majority won’t even know my name, let alone recognize me on the street.”

“Hmm, yeah,” she muses, casually glancing around the room as if she’s barely listening to him and agrees with him – but he knows she doesn’t. “Though, I do suppose if someone’s upset with the administration, or even, you know,” she lowers her voice momentarily, “a terrorist or something, and wants to get to someone close to the president, wants to get to someone who has influence in national security decisions, I’m guessing they’ll probably do their research and know exactly who you are.”

He knows she’s right, and they’ve already faced too many close calls in Rosalyn and in Gaza, and they weren’t even targets then. “Still,” he pouts.

“Get over it, Buttercup. It keeps you safe. If the tables were turned ...”

“I don’t know what you got into,” he chooses to ignore her Buttercup comment. “It’s only two months into this relationship and you’ve already gotta deal with a secret service agent everywhere we go.”

She scoffs. “ _Please_. Of all the things I have to look past to be with you, that’s hardly anything.”

He looks up at her. “Funny.” He gives her a quick kiss on the check, chaste enough to follow their agreed upon guidelines for affection in these kinds of work situations. “I love you.”

“So you’ve said,” she grins. “I’ll get back to you on that once I see how obtrusive this detail thing is.”

*

The ninth ball is the final ball. They’ve managed to keep pretty good time – maybe President Santos will be a little better at staying on a schedule than President Bartlet was – giving each ball a small amount of their time.

Donna finds Josh as he finishes a conversation with Lou. The two women greet each other with a nod and a smile. Donna resists the urge to comment on the fact that Lou is wearing a _dress_ and instead notices that she looks as exhausted as Donna feels. 

“You ready to go home?” Josh asks. He looks exhausted, too. It’s been a long day since their six am wake-up call this morning. 

“Please. My feet are _killing_ me,” she grumbles, her heels long since cutting into the circulation of her toes. 

“I guess our date with Mark-” 

“- _Martin_ ,” she corrects through a yawn. 

“ _Martin_ … awaits.” He can already see it now. Donna’s going to know everything about every person assigned to his detail within days. Luckily for him, one of the two of them will be charming. He offers his arm to her and he briefly remembers going to get her at her apartment four years ago and walking with her like this through the snow. “Let’s go, Ms. Chief of Staff. Your work here is done.”

She smiles sleepily. “Thank you, Mr. Chief of Staff,” she replies as she takes his arm. “Sounds like we’re married.”

He raises his eyebrows at her in amusement, and she freezes, realizing what she’s just said. She’s had a lot of champagne and she’s exhausted. 

“One thing at a time, alright?” he retorts with a grin. She feels relieved at his reaction and sighs in relief as he wraps his arm around her shoulders. 

*

It’s the second inaugural ball of the night, and Annabeth approaches Josh and Donna with two glasses of champagne. 

“Second term, here we come, baby!” she squeals before bounding away, full of energy (and probably a bit of champagne).

Josh chugs his champagne not-quite-so-elegantly and then he subtly switches glasses with Donna.

“You’re making me look like an alcoholic, my glass is always empty within seconds,” she chides, glancing around to see if anyone is looking at them or listening to them. “Slow it down a little!”

“Sorry,” he returns. “But I _am_ drinking for two here.”

She looks around the room and sighs. “How are we going to _do_ this?” she asks, not for the first time that night.

“We’ll figure it out,” he assures her, a soft hand on her back. 

“I mean, the _hours_ …”

“You _really_ shouldn’t have taken that test _today_.”

“This is serious, Josh!” she exclaims, then lowers her voice. “This is a very serious situation and we’ve got a lot of serious responsibilities and-”

“Donna. We’ll make it work,” he tells her again. “One way or another. I promise. We'll be fine.”

She remembers four years ago when he assured her their relationship would be fine. Though this was a whole new ballgame, she decides to enjoy the inauguration – most likely the last one she will attend – and trust him.

“Okay,” she agrees.

“Our _child_ is attending the inauguration of the President of the United States,” he realizes, letting his hand drift from her arm over her midsection and away, only brief enough that either of them would notice. 

She grins. “Imagine that.”

Sam arrives and hands each of them a glass of champagne. They look at each other knowingly.

“You better not take advantage of me when I’m drunk,” he whispers to her and she laughs.

They'll make it work. They'll be fine.


End file.
